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MAPUTO. — Mozambique will hold its presidential, parliamentary and provincial elections on Wednesday October 15. Campaigning ended yesterday. According to Mozambique’s electoral laws, candidates had up to 45 days of campaigning. The ruling Frelimo party and the main opposition party Renamo both announced that they will close their campaigning in the northern Nampula province, the country’s largest constituency.
Voting materials are now being placed in the 17 201 polling stations where voters will elect the country’s fourth president since independence in 1975 among Filipe Nyusi of the ruling Frelimo party, Afonso Dhlakama of Renamo, and Daviz Simango of the Mozambique’s Democratic Movement (MDM).
17 010 polling stations are inside Mozambique, while the other 191 cater for Mozambican communities living abroad.
According to the country’s Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE), there are nearly 11 million registered voters.
The director of STAE, Felisberto Naife, told journalists on Friday that all logistics are in place to ensure a peaceful election and about 130 000 election officers have been recruited.
Naife said STAE is using vehicles, boats and helicopters to deliver election materials to the polling stations. The materials and the polling officers must be flown into the most remote areas.
He also confirmed that national and international observers were already in place to monitor the electoral process.
Altogether, 27 political parties, two coalitions and one citizens association are running for the new Parliament and provincial assemblies.
Filipe Nyusi, the Frelimo candidate has said he will continue what has been started by the previous president, and referred to the governance on education, as a continuous process.
According to Nyusi, when a child finishes primary school and is asked what he wants to do next, he will immediately, unless he is lazy, reply that “I’m going to continue on to secondary school,” and after secondary school he would say “I’m going to continue on to university.”
The two candidates from the opposition parties both focused on criticising the mistakes made by the ruling Frelimo party.
Dhlakama has been concentrating his speeches on promising to defend the people of Mozambique and democracy as well as solving people’s problems like unemployment, poverty and to fight for justice and respect for the people.
“Only with Renamo can we overcome the problems that the Mozambican people are passing through,” claimed the Renamo leader.
Simango of MDM claims that he will revolutionise the education and heath sectors and solve all problems that Frelimo failed to resolve during their 39 years in power.
Simango has been very critical of the ruling party’s failures particularly in providing jobs for the youth and better salaries and working conditions for teachers and health workers. He promises to fight nepotism, corruption and lack of transparency in the management of public assets.
Meanwhile, representatives of the three main political parties said on Friday in Maputo that they will respect the results of the elections, as long as they are free and transparent.
The party officials were speaking as part of the electoral debate organised by the youth parliament over the electoral violence registered in some of the areas during the campaign.
Youth Parliament is an institution recognised by the government, dedicated to reflection and participation of the youth in the implementation of their rights and responsibilities as well as to present their concerns and priorities to decision making institutions.
“Every result that is legitimate, clean, and reflect the will of the people, must be accepted not only by Frelimo party but every political party,” said Edmundo Galiza Matos Jr, the ruling Frelimo party’s parliamentary spokesperson.
Renamo said that if there is transparency and justice there is no need to deny the results.
“If the results are fair and there are not those situations whereby people say there was fraud but not sufficient to change the results, we can’t perpetrate these situations where losers become presidents,” said Eduardo Namburrete, a senior Renamo member said. — Xinhua/Herald Reporter
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